Yep, I’ve been hanging around the 100 yen stores again. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to pull pantyhose over the top of your head? Have you ever wondered what someone’s face would look like with pantyhose pulled over their head?

Well have I got the item for you! Check out this… novel …100 yen Japanese party game. I haven’t tried it myself, but apparently it’s a very funny “tag” of war.

Kanji is the most common stumbling block for Japanese learners. It’s easy to see why: there are 1,945 Joyo kanji, hundreds more non-Joyo kanji that are still very commonly used, and yet hundreds more kanji that are used in people’s names. And each of these intricate little characters has a specific order in which the strokes must be written, probably has multiple readings, might have multiple meanings, and can be mixed and matched with many other kanji to create compound words (熟語 : jukugo).

Basically, there is a reason that Japanese students are still studying kanji even in high school, and that reason is that kanji are as difficult as they are many.

I switched my provider to Softbank from AU at the start of this month so that I could finally get on the iPhone bandwagon that I had been hearing so much about. I knew it would be a cool device but it has so far exceeded every single expectation I held for it. I run down my battery into the 20-30% range everyday from almost constant use (I even use it as an alarm clock at night) and have in two short weeks already spilled over to 6 pages of apps (even though I turned some off with BossPrefs). But, enough fanboy rant… you came here to read about apps…

Japanese signs are great fun. You really have to admire the amount of detail that went into some of them. Here’s a collection of pictures of various warnings, notices, caution signs, etc. that I’ve come across in my journeys…

Totemo means “very” in Japanese, also sometimes pronounced とっても/tottemo with a kicked “t” for added emphasis. Because it is so easy to pronounce, so broad in meaning and so simple in grammar, it is one of the most useful words in the Japanese language. “Power-words” like totemo great for speed-learning, and non-Japanese pick up on these words with unparalleled ease… However, all too often those learners end up clinging to these words to a far greater degree than they should and for a much longer time than they should…

Another month, another round of proverbs. For those of you who are following me on twitter you already know the drill: every day I select a new Japanese proverb to tweet for everyone’s learning pleasure. So if you like these, please be sure to follow me.

Starting this month I’ll be including the romaji readings for the proverbs alongside the katakana…

In the first chapter of Katakana mysteries, I covered a few words whose Japanese meaning has by one path or another become quite different from their English ancestors. This time, I’ve rounded up 7 more words/phrases that are interesting for the opposite reason: their accuracy. You probably wouldn’t have expected these underdogs of English to even become loanwords at all, much less to have survived the Japanese translation gauntlet intact…

Sharemo is Japanese ingenuity at its best. It’s a new kind of website, dubbed “social sharing”, where people can list things they have but don’t need around the house, and borrow or take similarly listed items from other people across the country.

Not long ago you could find matcha (powdered green tea) flavored coca cola at convenience stores around Japan. Thankfully that scourge seems to have passed, but the age old rivalry between Pepsi and Coke wages on, and Pepsi has fired back with… sweet bean flavor? all…. right….